Chapter 359: The Popular Fifth Kazekage
"The Sand Village has changed a lot." Haruno Sakura said to Gaara with a faint smile.
Her words were not just flattery.
At least in her opinion, after the war between Konoha and the Sand, the Sand Village had recovered some of its vitality after two years of rest and learning from Konoha.
When she came here last year, it still felt a bit desolate; now it has improved greatly. There are many more ninja and pedestrians walking on the street, and several new shops have opened.
If he were still in his Kazekage persona, Gaara would probably respond to Sakura's praise with some official words like "It's all thanks to everyone's hard work."
However, he just smiled faintly, nodded, and said, "It's not dinner time yet. Why don't we go sit there for a while?"
Taking off the Kazekage's white robe, Gaara also put down his status as Kazekage and spoke to the two as a friend. The stark change in tone seemed natural on him.
Haruno Sakura couldn't help but look at him a few more times.
This was the first time Haruno Sakura had a friend who was a Kage. Gaara's vastly different attitudes made her feel fresh and a little strange. From his almost confessional inauguration speech, Sakura heard many things from the bottom of Gaara's heart. He wanted to completely break with his unbearable past and become a brand new person. The hardships of his childhood did not destroy him, but instead created the resolute young Kazekage of today.
Having had a cruel childhood, witnessed reality as cold as ice, and then awakened by Naruto, the current Gaara possessed both the coldest and softest sides in his heart. This was the most important quality of a statesman, not a politician. He would not yield to Konoha because he was Sakura's friend, nor would he be condescending to his friends because of his status as Kazekage.
It had to be said that the current Gaara lived very purely. Perhaps he would be a great Kazekage.
Sakura didn't know if Gaara became the Kazekage in the original story.
But to become the Kage of one of the five great villages at such a young age and with the identity of a Jinchuriki was a very rare thing in the ninja world. Besides the desperate need for change, the Sand Village obviously also sensed the coming storm and hurriedly found an umbrella for itself.
Of course, it had to be mentioned that the strength guarantee brought by the Jinchuriki and the identity of Gaara's father as the Kazekage were also important reasons why Gaara could break the precedent and become the new generation Kazekage. In this world, the belief that "dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and mice's children can dig holes" was quite convincing, and the existence of Kekkei Genkai also provided endorsement for such backward bloodline theory.
Although the Fourth Kazekage was ruthless to his son, objectively speaking, his existence still enabled Gaara to ascend to the highest throne of the Sand.
If Gaara's legendary experience didn't have this one regret, according to the TV drama tropes of her previous life, Gaara should be able to say that he reached his current position relying entirely on his own efforts.
Capital outside of ability equals zero.
Having said that, even Haruno Sakura herself was not qualified to say such words, right?
Thinking of this, Haruno Sakura also felt somewhat emotional. If the Fourth Kazekage knew about the current situation in the afterlife, what would he think? Anyway, Gaara's mood should be complicated.
When Gaara spoke, he was pointing at a cold drink shop.
The exterior of the shop mimicked Konoha's style. The glass doors and neon lights seemed a bit incongruous with the traditional style of the Sand Village, as if a cold drink shop from the Land of Fire had opened a chain store here.
However, as far as Sakura knew, currently, the Sand Village did not allow such cold drink shops to open in the middle of the village; the shop's name "Sand Ice" was also very characteristic of the Sand ninja, presumably opened by locals.
"When we came last time," Sasuke pulled open the glass door and walked in, telling from the brand-new decoration that this was a newly opened shop, "it seems this shop wasn't here yet, right?"
"Opened a few months ago." Gaara nodded and said.
The three found a place to sit down.
The bright decoration style was somewhat incompatible with the Sand ninja's tradition of favoring darkness. The customers in the shop were mostly young people from the Sand Village, many of whom were the new generation of Sand ninja. Seeing Gaara enter, they all turned their heads, nodded or watched attentively, mostly showing friendly smiles or even respectful gazes on their faces.
Even a few girls, including female ninja, had suspicious blushes on their faces.
Gaara had distinct features and a handsome appearance. Coupled with his clear temperament and imposing manner, he looked like a very clean and handsome young man. With the addition of power and influence, it was understandable that he won the favor of a group of girls.
As for Gaara's once bloodthirsty and fierce personality, it was ignored; or rather, his dark history back then aroused their sympathy and overflowing maternal love instead. If not for the constraints of superior-subordinate status and girls' reserve, a group of fangirls would have surrounded him. With Gaara's current image, the labels of "domineering CEO" and "handsome idol" would probably stay with him for a long time.
Haruno Sakura knew the fanaticism of fangirls all too well.
Two lives with different genders gave her a good understanding of both men and women.
If Gaara were ugly, the attitude of the women present towards Gaara would probably be hatred and disgust, or simply ignoring him; to be able to cast a slightly sympathetic gaze, that would definitely be a one-in-a-million 100% kind girl.
Men were the same.
Whatever bad things a good-looking woman did could be whitewashed. As long as her skin was fair and face good, chest big and legs long, even if she was a world-destroying demon, there would be a group of people to lick her boots.
Not only Gaara enjoyed this special attention, but even Sasuke beside him had a share.
Two handsome guys with different styles stirred up a small commotion among the girls.
In terms of looks, Sasuke was slightly better. In terms of temperament, Gaara, who had become the Kazekage and whose eyes had more depth and connotation, won a round; speaking of which, Sasuke still looked slightly shallow. After all, this boy who used to talk about revenge every day had not completely escaped his chuunibyou phase. Even now, he was somewhat resistant to thinking too deeply—because once he thought deeply, he would have to face the possibility that his clan had secretly plotted to rebel against Konoha and start a war. Influenced by Haruno Sakura's subtle influence, Sasuke also knew very well that such treasonous behavior was unreasonable anywhere.
Family or village, relatives or comrades? Using insufficient evidence as a reason, Sasuke was subconsciously avoiding these opposing sharp questions in his heart.
However, sooner or later, he would have to face them one day.
In comparison, girls generally liked men who could bring them a sense of security. The refined and gentle Gaara suited their taste more.
Watching those excited girls covering their mouths and whispering about which one was more handsome and which one was more suitable to be a boyfriend, Haruno Sakura just felt inexplicably like laughing; regardless of gender, regardless of which world, humans had many common bad roots, such as liking to indulge in such fantasies that had no possibility at all. Based on her understanding of Sasuke and Gaara, it would be strange if they were interested in these chattering girls.
However, she soon couldn't laugh anymore, because as the girl following behind two handsome guys, Sakura also received attention. The gazes cast on her by boys and girls were both glaring. She could understand the mentality of the former, but the unanimous envy, jealousy, and hatred from the girls towards her was something Sakura felt for the first time.
As if saying, "How can that vixen stay beside those two handsome guys!"
The subtle feeling made Haruno Sakura a little dumbfounded.
If it were in Konoha, there were basically few ninja who didn't know her now. Out of respect for her status and strength, they naturally wouldn't and dared not make such rude gestures. The Sand ninja didn't know her, so their gazes became somewhat blatant.
Gaara and Sasuke had experienced such incidents many times and had developed the ability to ignore fangirls and remain calm. On the contrary, Sakura herself was a little unaccustomed. Sitting on the chair, feeling the thoughts of the surrounding girls wishing to replace her, she always felt like sitting on pins and needles.
After chatting for a while, the topic turned to Naruto—this was a topic all three cared about.
"Is Naruto still training hard with Jiraiya?" Gaara asked.
"Hn, hasn't come back yet." Haruno Sakura said with a smile. "We can only contact him by letter once every few months. Not very clear about his recent situation, but everything should be going smoothly, right?"
"Sakura, you don't just send letters, do you?" Sasuke suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and said, "You also send him clothes... I don't understand what you're thinking."
Haruno Sakura curled her lips: "Isn't this smarter than you sending scrolls? Anyway, he won't read them. At least he will wear clothes, and Hinata and I have better taste than that sloppy old man Jiraiya!"
Last time she sent those many materials, Naruto fell asleep after reading only the first page. After hearing about that, Sakura was also speechless.
Sasuke just didn't believe it and sorted out a lot of Wind Style materials from the family library that he thought Naruto could use and sent them over... In comparison, a few new clothes should be a more suitable choice—this was reminded by Hinata after Naruto returned to the village last time. This careful girl found patches on the corners of his clothes. Thinking about it, damaging clothes was inevitable when training in the wild, and asking two grown men to do needlework was hard enough for them.
Speaking of which, she herself didn't know the magical technique of needlework.
Haruno Sakura's plausible rebuttal made Gaara laugh dumbly; behind the calm smile was a trace of envy hidden in his heart. After all, he had never met a companion who could care for him like this.
People always cherish things they can't get easily. Gaara had always longed for normal interpersonal relationships, companions, and friends like Naruto had.
However, as Gaara became the Kazekage and began to shoulder the responsibility of the village on his somewhat tender shoulders, in the village, the people around him would only form superior-subordinate relationships with him, and fewer and fewer people would be qualified to care for him as companions...
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